Just had to show you the card I received from cazarol for this month's challenge on the crafty place. Isn't she a beauty.

Also, I had the pleasure of this little ATC poppet from leia, thank you, she's so sweet.

ATC Swap

My ATC swap in the Crafty Place was with Leia, I received hers on Saturday and it's gorgeous. I hope she likes mine

I've just spent a brilliant weekend crafting with my lovely sis-in-law. We've had a wonderful time making loads of cards and decorative boxes. I recently bought a Scor-Pal board and we played for hours making the boxes and the ideas just kept coming once we'd got the hang of it.

I made the card for a lovely person on MSE, npsmama, just to thank her for the perfect images that she stamped for me. I waited for her to get the card before posting a picture.

Helen took the photo of the boxes we made and I am really pleased with them considering we haven't done anything like this before.

I had a fabulous day at Bluewater with my son. He gave me John Lewis vouchers for Christmas and I just didn't know what to get. Then I spotted it, it was calling me....... from across the store. A new purse! A lovely soft Tula purse in shades of lilac. It's so gorgeous! Pockets for this, pockets for that, pockets for my ever growing collection of 'biddy' cards, you know the ones that they give you to get a discount when you reach that certain age. I love it!

Our theme for this months US card swap was 'friends' or 'special girlfriend' and journal a little for your swappers to get to know you.

Here's the card I've made with one of my favourite range of papers, Pink Petticoat. The stamp is one from the Stamping Up Oval All set. This colourway is lavender which sets of the delicate flowers beautifully. Printed on SU's card stock as it's very lightweight as I am sending quite a few of these across the pond.

My lovely sister in law is coming for a couple of days at the weekend, fingers crossed for fine weather as we want to get down to the beach early in the morning so that we can give her handsome dog, Ty, a good walk and get some fresh air ourselves. Back for breakfast and then........ hours of crafting!

Just spent the most beautiful morning out on a bike ride with my DH. We cycled down to St. Peters on the Wall, a church right on the edge of the coast at Bradwell. The church was first built in 645 AD on the foundations of an old Roman fort. It's such a peaceful place inside the church,cool and quiet.

Being out in the sun and talking with Emma from MSE I got my inspiration for the MSE Summer challenge.

I'm off out tomorrow with lots of Red Hatters, it's Queen Cass's birthday lunch at Prezzo's in Brentwood. Each Red Hat chapter has a Queen, Queen Mum or a First Lady. I didn't want to make anything in red and purple, so I decided on using black,white and a red embellishment and acetate as an overlay with the greeting embossed. The flowers I bought back from the US as they were so reasonably priced. I took this picture very early in the morning and you can see part of my reflection at the bottom.

I've just made this for my friend, Jan, for her birthday. She's the kind of person that gives you a mega hug whenever she sees you and a friend that you can be quiet with as well as chatter nineteen to the dozen. Happy Birthday, Jan.

I've just finished this Kanban kit card for my daughter-in-law in Canada. I am liking the art deco style more and more. At least it's a die-cut decoupage as I'd never have managed to cut the oval smoothly!

This evening I posted my card for the sketch challenge. I built around some beautiful ribbon I bought in the Cheap Shop in Tiptree, Essex. I finished the ribbon off with a long wavy slim peeloff, I've never used them before.

May Card Swap

Yesterday I received from craftygranny my May card and ATC swap arrange on the Crafty Place. I love it and it has pride of place on my pinboard. I am in a monthly card swap with other Red Hatters, they are mainly in America but I will often make extra to send to a few special friends here in the UK, just so they know I am still around. Here's craftygranny's card, perfect as I was clearing my board of last month's swap

My First Post

After joining the brilliant crowd on MSE and seeing all their fabulous blogs I decided to jump on in and create one for myself.

I love cardmaking, scrapbooking and cross-stitch and I trained as a milliner when I was much, much younger. I am also a member of the Red Hat Society and have always loved hats and I enjoy wearing them. Last count was eleven, nine red, one purple and one cream (for weddings, just in case!)